Roald Dahl’s “Matilda” is celebrating its 30th anniversary today, and even if you didn’t read the children’s book growing up, you’ve seen the Mara Wilson movie, right?
Matilda was a lot of things: a bookworm, a genius, a telekinetic. Born to indifferent parents and with too much potential, Matilda found solace in her first grade teacher, Miss Honey, but Miss Honey was watched over by her abrasive aunt (and boss) Miss Trunchbull. Matilda helps Miss Honey reclaim her late father’s estate from Trunchbull using her powers, and everyone lives happily ever after.
The 1996 film is an American classic and the musical version opened on Broadway in 2013 to rave audiences.
To salute Matilda’s 30th year, the book’s original illustrator, Quentin Blake, sketched what he thinks Matilda would be up to in her 30s. From astrophysics professor and poet laureate to professional wrestler and cosmetologist, it looks like the gifted kid has been trailblazing the academic world since she used a floating piece of chalk to fake a ghost attack.
Puffin Books reportedly only asked Blake to make a single sketch, but the resulting eight (three of which are the new book covers for the 30th anniversary editions) are adorable.
“I have had a lot of fun imagining what that little girl might be doing now she’s all grown up. Since, as a small child, Matilda was gifted in several different ways, it wasn’t very difficult,” Blake wrote in a foreword.
The relevance of “Matilda” is timeless -- the story taught little girls that it’s good to be whip smart and sassy, it’s OK to get a little mad when life isn’t fair and that standing up to the unfairness is important. And with Blake giving us a glimpse into what the little genius would be doing with her intelligence, it’s all the more encouraging for the women that grew up alongside Matilda. A statue of a defiant Matilda has also been erected at Dahl’s home in Buckinghamshire, England in honor of the anniversary.
The influence of “Matilda” goes far and wide -- even spawning a “challenge” on Twitter. In one of the first sequences of the film, Wilson’s Matilda tests out her newfound powers to Thurston Harris’s “Little Bitty Pretty One,” and videos recently sprung up playing off of the scene.
Basically, everyone loves Matilda and we want her to do great things for the rest of her life.